Pacific currents

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 109-127

  Nelson, Hank ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61249484134     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0022334032000085846     Document Type: Review

References (115)

1. Dudley McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - Kokoda to Wau (Canberra 1959), 233;
2. and S.F. Rowell, Full Circle (Melbourne 1974), 121.
3. This paper had its origins in a seminar given on 19 Sept. 2002, in the State Society and Governance in Melanesia Project, Australian National University.
4. Tony Stephens, Sydney Morning Herald, 3-4 Aug. 2002, p. 29.
5. Patrick Lindsay, The Spirit of Kokoda: then and now (Melbourne 2002), quotes from cover blurb.
6. F. Kingsley Noms, Mo Memory for Pain: an autobiography (Melbourne 1970), 147.
7. This description went into Norris's report and was reprinted in several places, e.g. The official medical history (Allan Walker, The Island Campaigns (Canberra 1957), 15-16);
8. Raymond Pauli, The Retreat from Kokoda (London 1960, first pub. 1958);
9. and Charles Bateson, The War with Japan: a concise history (Sydney 1968), 198-9.
10. George Johnston, New Guinea Diary (Sydney 1943), was called The Toughest Fighting in the World in the American edition. When Samuel Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, 22 July 1942-1 May 1944 (Boston 1975), used Johnston's title for a section heading he was clearly referring to the fighting around Buna. The 'world's most difficult battleground' was used in the Melbourne Herald on 18 Sept. 1942.
11. McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area, 108.
12. E.G. Keogh, South West Pacific 1941-45 (Melbourne 1965), 170;
13. Lida Mayo, Bloody Buna (Canberra 1975), 8;
14. Peter Brune, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes: from the Kokoda Trail to Gona Beach 1942 (Sydney 1991), 26.
15. Bill Edgar, Warrior of Kokoda: a biography of Brigadier Arnold Potts (Sydney 1999), 131. In '21st Australian Infantry Brigade Report on Operations - Owen Stanley Range 15/8/42 to 20/9/42', Canberra, Australian War Memorial, AWM54 577/7/3, there is a section on the maps and their deficiencies. Samuel Morison, who never missed a colourful phrase, called it a trail 'suitable for splay-toed Papuans' (Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, 34).
16. British Mew Guinea Annual Report (hereinafter Annual Report), 1898-99, reprints a detailed patrol report, pp. 41-5.
17. Annual Report, 1898-99, p. 43. The people who attacked were probably Koiari, but may have included Orokaiva.
18. Hank Nelson, Black, White and Gold: goldmining in Papua New Guinea 1878-1930 (Canberra 1976), Ch. 9.
19. Kenneth Mackay, Across Papua: being an account of a voyage round, and a march across, the Territory of Papua, with the Royal Commission (London 1909), 115.
20. Annual Report, 1904-5, p. 34.
21. Amirah Inglis, Karo: the life and Jak of a Papuan (Canberra 1982), 23-30.
22. Mackay, Across Papua, 123-4.
23. David Lewis, The Plantation Dream: developing British New Guinea and Papua 1884-1942 (Canberra 1996), 309.
24. Alfred Chapman, 'Breeding new ground - Part 2', Journal of Pacific Adventist History, 1:2 (2001), 9. Peter Hempenstall helped find Adventist sources.
25. Lester Lock, Loch that Opened Doors (privately pub. 2000). Lester includes a chapter (4) by William on the founding of the mission at Efogi.
26. Lester Lock in email to HN.
27. The SDA mission then had a staff of 10 Europeans and several Solomon Islanders in Papua: R.W. Robson (ed.), The Pacific Islands Year Book (Sydney 1942), 31.
28. Geoff Baskett, Islands and Mountains (privately pub. n.d.), 85;
29. Ian Mackay, Broadcasting in Papua New Guinea (Melbourne 1976), 8-9.
30. John Garrett, Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania since World War II (Suva and Geneva 1997), 36.
31. Lance Taylor, Snake Road: a guide to the history, people and places of the Sogeri district (Sogeri 1992), 146.
32. Philippa Bridges, 'Afoot in Papua, 1923', Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, Session 1923-4, Vol. XXV, pp. 29-56. Bill Gammage told me about Bridges's walk.
33. Under Angau the Papuan Divisions followed New Guinea practice and were called 'districts'. All of Papua and New Guinea was now known as Australian New Guinea.
34. Tom Grahamslaw, reminiscences, Pacific Islands Monthly, Mar. 1971, p. 141.
35. Brown, diary, 28 Apr. 1942, Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, mf, PMB1162.
36. Jessie Lilian (Pat) Searle, Memini ... (I Remember) Recollections of my life ... (privately pub. n.d.), 182-6.
37. Grahamslaw, reminiscences, 141.
38. Alan Hooper, Love War and Letters, PNG 1940-45 (Cooparoo 1994), 102. Hooper was going north and met the Japanese prisoner being escorted by Eric Turner.
39. Hooper, Love War and Letters, 76;
40. Alex Perrin, The Private War of the Spotters: the history of the New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company February 1942-April 1945 (privately pub. 1990). The spotters were generally delivered by boat to the Northern Division.
41. Colin Kennedy, Port Moresby to Gona Beach: 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion 1943 (privately pub. 1942), App. 1, reprints the report. The report is in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra (hereinafter AWM), AWM 45, 1/5/51, and 857/7/25. The map at an inch to four miles is attached. Because they thought the bush was impenetrable, Palmer and Young said that at points the track could be held by a platoon, and so added to misunderstandings about the forces needed to block the enemy.
42. Victor Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond: the story of the 39th Battalion 1941-1943 (Melbourne 1988), 83-9. The battalion first went into action forward of Kokoda, and later fought on the track.
43. W.B. Russell, The Second Fourteenth Battalion: a history of an Australian Infantry Battalion in the Second World War (Sydney 1948), 122.
44. The origin of the information of the sand-table model that the 21st saw on the track is uncertain, but it probably came from several sources (Lex McAuley, Blood and Iron: the battle for Kokoda 1942 (Sydney 1991), 126).
45. W.R. Humphries, Patrolling in Papua (London 1923), 208.
46. Jack Mason, a local planter, was at Awala and he was a keen radio ham. Searle was also an experienced radio operator.
47. As the first commanders of the 39th, Lt-Col. W.T. Owen, and the 53rd, Lt-Col. K.H. Ward, were both killed early on the track, it is not easy to say what the commanding officers knew of conditions.
48. Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond, 10;
49. and F.M. Budden, That Mob: the story of the 55/53rd Australian Infantry Battalion, A.I.F. (privately pub. 1973), 10.
50. Lindsay, The Spirit of Kokoda, 18.
51. John Howard, transcript of speech given on 14 Aug. 2002 at Isurava.
52. Budden, That Mob, 10.
53. Barry Inquiry - Suspension of the Civil Administration of the Territory of Papua in February 1942, Canberra, National Archives of Australia, CP389/1, pp. 7-8. The evidence before the Barry Commission was that the troops were out of control, but the strange argument being put was that the army had to have complete authority because the civil administration had lost control. It was true that in February 1942 the army needed greater authority, but the Barry Commission was lenient on the failings in the army and on Morris. Brune (Those Ragged Bloody Heroes) is one of the few writers who has been back to the Barry Commission. As the actual evidence of witnesses is available it is a valuable document on events of early 1942.
54. The ages are recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Nearly all those killed on Kokoda are buried in Bomana war cemetery, Port Moresby.
55. Both men were from the 39th battalion. Hughes died on 2 August and Smalley on 30 August Hughes has a grave in Bomana and Smalley's name is on a panel. In the 6th Division the 2/9th battalion, thought to have been one of the youngest, had an average age of 27 (Gavin Long, To Benghazi (Canberra 1952), 58, footnote). In the 8th Division, I have calculated that the 2/21 st averaged about 25, the 2/22nd 27, and the 2/40th 25. The 39th was young, but not abnormally young.
56. Brune makes a similar point (Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, 95-6).
57. Canberra Times, 15 Aug. 2002.
58. S. Milner, Victory in Papua: the war in the Pacific, United States Army in World War II (Washington 1989), 61 and 70. Milner in a footnote says that the Japanese troop numbers are from the Japanese 8th Fleet figures - the 8th Fleet had transported the troops. Milner - unlike the Australian official histories - has detailed footnotes.
59. Milner, Victory in Papua, 74.
60. The Angau officers were Peter Brewer, Geoffrey Vernon and Jack Wilkinson.
61. That is almost certainly too high. Another estimate says on 1 September 1942 the 2/16th had 450 men, the 2/14th 230, the 39th 250 and the 53rd is not given (Summary of Operations New Guinea Kokoda-Ioribaiwa, 21 July 1942-3 Oct. 1942, AWM 54, 577/7/29).
62. Malcolm Uren, A Thousand Men at War: the story of the 2/ 16th Battalion, A.I.F. (Melbourne 1959), 118, says the 2/ 16th was 600 strong.
63. McCarthy, South-West Pacifie Area, 228.
64. Howard, transcript of speech of 14 Aug. 2002, Isurava.
65. Osmar White later wrote Green Armour (Sydney 1945, repub. subsequently).
66. Parer's film, Kokoda Front Line, opened in Sydney on 22 Sept. 1942.
67. See Peter Brune, We Band of Brothers: a biography of Ralph Honner, soldier and statesman (Sydney 2000), for details.
68. 21st Australian Infantry Brigade Report on Operations.
69. The 53rd had lost 13 men killed or died of wounds - the lowest casualties of the 12 infantry battalions to fight on the track (McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area, 334, but Budden, That Mob, 164, lists 20 dead whose ages can be determined). Some 53rd battalion, attached to the 2/14th, served slightly longer in action.
70. Bill Elliott, transcript, AWM Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939-45, pp 29-30.
71. and J.C. McAllester, Men of the 2/ 14 Battalion (privately pub. 1990).
72. The 2/ 14th has been well-served: Peter Dornan, The Silent Men: Syria to Kokoda and on to Gona (Sydney 1999), is centred on men in the 2/14th and Brune and other writers of general histories give detail on the 2/14th.
73. F.M. Budden, That Mob, and The Chocos: the story of the militia battalions in the South West Pacific area 1941-1945 (privately pub. 1987), defends the 53rd.
74. When creating the Murdoch oral history records of World War II for the Australian War Memorial, we tried to give the 55th/53rd a chance to speak for themselves and about 12 men of the unit were included, several joining after Kokoda.
75. The writings of David Horner have been important: Crisis of Command: Australian generalship and the Japanese threat, 1941-1943 (Canberra 1978);
76. High Command: Australia and Allied strategy 1939-1945 (Sydney 1982);
77. and Blamey: the Commander-in-Chief (Sydney 1998).
78. Paul Mark (ed.), Advancing Australia: the speeches of Paul Keating, Prime Minister (Sydney 1995), 281.
79. Howard, transcript of speech, 14 Aug. 2002, Isurava.
80. Post-Courier, 2 Sept. 2002.
81. Sapper H. 'Bert' Beros, The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and other verses (Sydney n.d.), 11. Also published widely in newspapers and magazines.
82. The Australian, 4 Sept. 2002, p. 4.
83. Report by Elliott-Smith of July-Aug. 1942, Angau War Diary, 1/10/1, AWM 54, App. 44A. I have written more fully about the carriers in a paper called 'Payback: Australian compensation to wartime Papua New Guinea', Sept. 1999.
84. Ken Inglis has previously written on the topic: 'War, race and loyalty in New Guinea, 1939-1945', in Second Waigani Seminar: the history of Melanesia (Canberra 1969), 503-29.
85. Angau War Diary, AWM 54, App. 67, Dec. 1942.
86. Tom Dutton has published several pieces on the Koiari (also Koiali). The Koiari languages are mapped and described in Tom Dutton, 'South-Eastern Trans-New Guinea Phylum languages', in S.A. Wurm (ed.), New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Vol. 1, Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene (Canberra 1975), 613-44.
87. Kienzle, diary, 24 July 1942, notes taking Sogeri labour (App. to Angau War Diary, Sept. 1942, AWM).
88. Kienzle, diary, 7 Nov. 1942. This was late and any Bulldog track men were likely to have worked north of Kokoda. By March the army had a massive labour force in the north - 5,199 in the Buna area (Angau War Diary, App. to Mar. 1943). There were then 1,933 on the Bulldog track.
89. Australian, editorial, 15 Aug. 2002, p. 10;
90. Sydney Morning Herald, 15 Aug. 2002, p. 4.
91. If the fighting at Buna is included, the American deaths (around 800) should also be included (Milner, Victory in Papua, 370-1).
92. Howard, transcript of speech, 14 Aug. 2002, Isurava. Howard also spoke of the 'pivotal importance' of Kokoda.
93. By the end of the fighting on Guadalcanal, the United States had used about 60,000 troops and the Japanese 36,000, and the air and sea clashes had been significant (Gavin Long, The Six Years War: a concise history of Australia in the 1939-45 war (Canberra 1973), 249).
94. Tanaka says that Horii was told he was to hold in the Owen Stanleys on 28 August (Kengoro Tanaka, Operations of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in the Papua New Guinea Theater During World War II, Japan Papua New Guinea Goodwill Society 1980, 28);
95. Milner says it was on 29 August ( Victory in Papua, 98);
96. and McCarthy says it was at the end of August (South-West Pacific Area, 304).
97. Horner, Crisis of Command, 154.
98. This is most obvious in the Melbourne Argus during September through October. The Argus had both Geoffrey Hutton and George Johnston in Papua.
99. As should already be apparent, the information to correct most common errors is readily available. The list of competent journalists covering the campaign can be extended: Geoffrey Hutton, George Johnston, Reg Leonard, Damien Parer, Geoffrey Reading, Osmar White, Chester Wilmot and others. Neil McDonald, War Cameraman: the story of Damien Parer (Melbourne 1994), is a valuable survey of Parer's work and of events on the track. In addition to the books already noted, another should be added: Lex McAuley, Blood and Iron: the battle for Kokoda 1942 (Sydney 1991), which includes more about the air war and more from Japanese sources than most general books.
100. Frank Sublet, Kokoda to the Sea: a history of the 1942 campaign in Papua (McCrae 2000), is a recent history by a company commander in the 2/ 16th battalion.
101. Mark Ryan (ed.), Advancing Australia: the speeches of Paul Keating, Prime Minister (Sydney 1995), 279-80.
102. Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: a portrait of Paul Keating PM (Sydney 2002), 183.
103. H. Nelson, 'Gallipoli, Kokoda and the making of national identity', Journal of Australian Studies, 3 (1997), 157-69.
104. John Howard, transcript of address to the RSL National Congress, Brisbane, 4 Sept. 2002.
105. At Alec Campbell's state funeral, Howard said: 'We think of the men and women of the Australian Defence Force now serving in Afghanistan, East Timor, Bougainville and elsewhere'. Transcript of speech, Hobart, 24 May 2002.
106. Letter to the editor, 21(?) Feb. 1992;
107. letters, Weekend Australian, 6-7 June 1998.
108. Geoffrey Reading, Papuan Story (Sydney 1946), 110.
109. Argus, 2 Oct. 1942.
110. Argus, 11 Sept. 1942, p. 1. George Johnston, War Diary 1942 (Sydney 1984), 83.
111. Kienzle's diary is printed as an appendix to the Angau War Diary for September 1942. But when he typed it is uncertain. He was in hospital at the end of 1942 and went to Australia on leave in early 1943, and he may have typed it up then.
112. William Guest, secretary of the 39th Australian Infantry Battalion Association, wrote of his association trying to get the name changed (letters to the editor, Australian, 5 July 1999).
113. McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area, opp. p. 114;
114. Wartime, 19 (2002), 3.
115. Kokoda 1942: Papua New Guinea July-November 1942 (Canberra 2002).